Brian Playford - Vice Chairman (up to 2005)

My first event was a treasure hunt organised by R.A.F. Gaydon in Warwickshire on a summer Sunday afternoon in 1960. It was announced the day before over the Tannoy in nearby R.A.F. Wellesbourne Mountford, where I was stationed, and I went along in my 1946 Ford 8 h.p. Anglia to find out what it was all about. The first question I was asked was who was my navigator, to which I answered no one and that I didn't know I needed one! Their first reaction was that I couldn't take part, but I persuaded them that I could drive and navigate. Then I found out I didn't have the specified map; instead I had the Ordnance Survey Second Series Half-Inch Map Sheet 36 Birmingham, which had cost me 4/6d (22.5p). I cannot now remember whether the route was wholly on this map, whether I got lost if the route did go off this map or whether I qualified as a finisher. I do remember, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The next event, in fact the next few events, were organised by the R.A.F. Akrotiri Motor Club in Cyprus. By this time, I was buying a new Ford Anglia 105E Saloon on the never-never, which left me little spare money. These Cyprus events used sealed watches carried by the navigator, regularity sections, route cards written by aircrew navigators and sometimes a driving test (now known as an Autotest) to sort out ties. Maps were military surveys on a scale of 1:50K and came free of charge. The routes were defined in many varied ways, requiring the use of protractors, drawing compasses, mathematics, average speed calculators and even a knowledge of physics in the form of the triangle and parallelogram of forces. Most of the events were daylight offerings, but I remember one night time midsummer event over 200 miles, for which I wore only a bathing costume and flip-flops. Cyprus, being much nearer the Equator than Blighty, has much longer hours of darkness in summer. My navigator for these events was Scotsman Bill Henderson from the Aberdeen area, who I still visit each year. I don't recall winning any pots on these events, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

On return to this country, I did one event in Bedfordshire with R.A.F. Henlow, which was the last event I did while in the R.A.F. On demob in 1965, I started work with Thomas Cook and Son Ltd in London. Motor rallying secured my job here, as the Staff Manager, Ken Little, who interviewed me, was Chairman of the Company's Motor Club and the interview was 90% about rallying. In addition to doing a few treasure hunts and gymkhanas with the Company club, I joined A.P.O.C., the Anglia Prefect Owners' Club, which eventually became part of the Thames Valley Motoring Club. Here I was introduced to Targa Timing, invented by a certain John Brown, of the Oxford University Motor Drivers' Club. It is said that this timing system was also adopted by the Paris Metro. I soon learnt to chuck any time schedule out of the window, which was only provided to satisfy the R.A.C. 'Blue Book' and the Motor Vehicles (Competitions and Trials (England Wales)) Regulations. Ah! Those were the days! No messing with making sure the watches were set to G.M.T. or B.S.T. The best rally I ever did was the Cilwendeg in S.W. Wales, organised by the Teifi Valley M.C. Although it was billed as a navigational rally, it was a qualifying event in the Motoring News Rally Championship. This meant that the whole route, consisting only of in order map references, was issued two hours before each crew's start time. You may wonder how this was classified as a navigational event; you may understand when I tell you there was a road junction every half mile on average, with a time control every two miles to really keep the pressure on. This was my only attempt at a Motoring News event and I was pleased to achieve 40th overall out of 120. I was encouraged to do these events by one Martin Holmes, who, at the time, was the leading light in the Sutton & Cheam M.C., of which I had become a member.

In 1974, Thomas Cook started moving their Head Office to Peterborough and I soon made enquiries about the local motor club. I found that members of this club had mostly not heard of Targa Timing and were still using sealed watches carried by navigators for their events. When I ran a 12-car for the Club using Targa, I was in hot water with the Club, for not complying with the speed specified in the Blue Book! On a few more, mainly E.M.A.M.C. Championship, events, I navigated Bob Taylor, of Taylor Motors, but these were not a patch on the Cilwendeg. Through trouble with local residents, I started losing interest in the sport and in 1978, I took on a mortgage, which I could barely afford, which brought most of my road rallying activities to an end.

Since 1993, when I took off for a seven month tour of North America and Australasia, my motoring pleasures have been severely curtailed through sustaining a compound fracture of my left leg in 1995 and, more recently, requiring a total hip replacement operation. I am now an O.A.P., so money remains short.. I have been recently been elected as PMC Vice-Chairman. If any member would like any advice on road rallying, remember I have considerable experience of the sport and would be only too happy to answer any queries you may have.

Secretary

Thanks to Jim Spencer who held this post up to February 2007